Wish You Were Here (Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording, Original recording reissued]

Harold Rome (Composer), Jay Blackton (Conductor), Sheila Bond (Performer), Jack Cassidy (Performer), Patricia Marand (Performer), Sidney Armus (Performer), Paul Valentine (Performer), Harry Clark (Performer), Sammy Smith (Performer), John Perkins (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 24, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording, Original recording reissued
• Label: Drg
• ASIN: B001OBBRY2
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,729 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture

2. Camp Kare-Free Song

3. Goodbye Love

4. Ballad Of A Social Director

5. Shopping Around

6. Mix & Mingle

7. Could Be

8. Tripping The Light Fantastic

9. Where Did The Night Go

10. Certain Individuals

11. They Won't Know Me

12. Summer Afternoon

13. Don Jose Of Far Rockaway

14. Everybody Love Everybody

15. Wish You Were Here

16. Relax

17. Flattery

18. Finale

Editorial Reviews

The producers of this 1952 musical went all out, installing an Olympic-size swimming pool on stage! The show (starring Jack Cassidy and Sheila Bond, who won a Tony) was a hit, and so was its title song; you'll hear Eddie Fisher's version as a bonus, plus Summer Afternoon; Flattery , and the rest of Harold Rome's wonderful score.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars charming Harold Rome musical, March 13, 2010

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wish You Were Here (Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

Harold Rome's 1952 Broadway offering, WISH YOU WERE HERE, became famous for featuring an actual Olympic-sized swimming pool on the stage; although Rome's carefree score should have been allowed to be the show's main drawcard. Here it is, performed by the original Broadway cast headed by a young Jack Cassidy, Sheila Bond and Patricia Marand.

Filled with delights like "Shopping Around", "Where Did the Night Go?", "Certain Individuals" and the Title Song; the Broadway album of WISH YOU WERE HERE is an enjoyable spin, although I'm a little more partial to the later London cast album which includes a sparky Shani Wallis in the Sheila Bond role.

In the words of one of the score's brightest songs, "shop around" for the WISH YOU WERE HERE album that most suits your tastes (and budget). In addition to this DRG pressing, two British labels (Stage Door Records and Flare Records) have each released their own editions of the Broadway cast album, both with various bonus tracks. This DRG reissue has the basic album, but with no additional material. Buy whichever is cheaper or more appealing.

4.0 out of 5 stars A DELIGHTFUL SCORE, NOT TO BE MISSED, June 17, 2009

By 

J. T Waldmann "yaakov98" (Carmel, IN, home to the fabulous new Regional Performing Arts Center.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wish You Were Here (Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

[All quotes from the LP liner notes by Stanley Green] "The Broadway musical theater has had many surprise hits, but none more unexpected than WISH YOU WERE HERE. Greeted by almost unanimously unfavorable reviews following its June 25th premiere, it became a sellout within two months and subsequently went on to achieve the impressive run of 597 performances." Not bad, considering only one musical of the season ran longer: Cole Porter's CAN-CAN (892 performances). KISMET came in third with 583, ME & JULIET managed 358 performances, and WONDERFUL TOWN - 1953's Tony Award winner for Best Musical - ran for only 559.

It was the on-stage Olympic sized swimming pool that almost sunk the show. Since an out-of-town tryout tour was logistically impossible, director/co-producer/co-author Joshua Logan had to ". . . settle for a series of preview performances: apparently this was not a satisfactory compromise, for neither critics nor public were impressed, and it looked as if nothing could save WISH YOU WERE HERE from a quick demise."

Logan spent the weekend revising the script. On Monday ". . . the cast was given thrity-six new pages - almost one fourth of the original - and told that the revisions would be used the following night. For weeks there ensued so many changes in the plot, songs, and in the direction, that critic Harold Clurman wryly referred to the show as the only experimental theater left in New York."

Based on Arthur Kober's 1936 play, HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME, the plot revolves around romantic escapades at a summer adult camp, presumably in the Catskills. "It seemed like a natural [for a musical], with camp entertainment working neatly into the plot and a ready-made chorus line consiting of vacationers in bathing suits." But it is Harold Rome's stellar score - his first for a book musical - that makes the show: "Goodbye Love," "Where Did the Night Go," "Summer Afternoon," "They Won't Know Me," to name a few. Also excellent novelty numbers like "Ballad of a Social Director," "Shopping Around," "Certain Individuals," "Flattery," the seductive "Relax," and "Don Jose of Far Rockaway." Jack Cassidy (first book musical for him, as well) would never again sound as fresh or sing as well as when he delivers the title song.

The entire cast is first rate: Jack Cassidy (Chick Miller); Sidney Armus (Itchy Flexner), Patricia Marand (Teddy Stern), Paul Valentine (Pinky Harris), and Sheila Bond, who won a Best Featured Actress Tony for playing Fay Fromkin. Larry Blyden, Florence Henderson, Reid Shelton, and Phyllis Newman all make their musical-comedy debuts in supporting roles. Don Walker's top-notch arrangements are in the capable hands of Don Walker.

Not to be missed.

(Sonically superior to the Flare and Stage Door imports, DRG's is THE version to own.)

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars about time!, March 7, 2010

By 

Bennett I. Bardfeld (South Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wish You Were Here (Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

I always liked this show. Surprised it took so long for this album to come out.